# 8 Key Lesson Components for Teaching Word Recognition

July 30, 2024

_*Today’s post has been excerpted and adapted from the third edition of  [**Speech to Print**](https://products.brookespublishing.com/Speech-to-Print-P1167.aspx) by Louisa Cook Moats, Ed.D._*

Foundational skills for word recognition must be the first concern for novice or struggling readers. It’s impossible to master fluent reading for meaning until and unless students read the words with sufficient accuracy and fluency. A rich curriculum for vocabulary and knowledge building can surround these core activities and does not have to be in competition with them.

Programs and methods for teaching students to recognize words accurately and fluently vary somewhat in their lesson structure, but usually include the 8 components summarized here. These components should be dispersed within a 30- to 45-minute time frame, depending on grade level and students’ skill levels.

**COMPONENT: Goal of the lesson**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 1 minute or less  
**What to do:** Make a brief and direct statement about what goal this lesson is intended to accomplish.

**COMPONENT: Review of previously learned material**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 5 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Reread a familiar text  
- Reread words with known patterns  
- Practice sound–symbol association with known correspondences

**COMPONENT: Phoneme awareness**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 3–5 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Refer to articulation while identifying phonemes  
- Target early, basic, or advanced phoneme awareness  
- Focus on listening and speaking, without print at first  
- Use manipulatives such as chips, felts

**COMPONENT: Introduce, explain new reading/spelling pattern**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 3–5 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Define explicitly and give relevant information  
- Draw students’ attention to both print and speech, while matching symbols and sounds  
- Present or model several examples  
- Clarify word meanings as necessary

**COMPONENT: Give guided practice**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 5 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Engage students in supported practice  
- Use routines for sound blending, word building, word mapping, word reading, etc.  
- Give immediate corrective feedback as students apply the new concept or skill

**COMPONENT: Provide monitored, independent practice opportunities**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 5 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Provide extended practice in word, phrase, sentence reading, using a variety of activities  
- Pair students for practice activities; assign one as “coach” and then reverse roles

**COMPONENT: Spell and write**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 5 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Dictate letters, words, phrases, and sentences for students to write that use patterns already taught  
- Practice sentence formulation with anagrams or with words to combine into a sentence

**COMPONENT: Decodable text reading**  
**Approximate time to spend on it:** 5–10 minutes  
**What to do:**  
- Introduce 2–3 unknown or high-frequency words necessary for text reading  
- Use texts with high percentage of words with correspondences already taught  
- Expect accurate application of decoding skills

All of these lesson elements will sharpen students’ focus on the linguistic details that must be processed for fluent reading and spelling to occur. In addition, teachers and therapists should take into account a learner’s phase of development and what it indicates about next instructional goals.

For in-depth knowledge of the structure and function of language—fundamentals every teacher needs to deliver successful structured literacy instruction—get the book behind today’s blog post.

### Speech to Print

**Language Essentials for Teachers, _Third Edition_**

By Louisa Cook Moats, Ed.D.

“Includes all a teacher needs to know about the English language in order to teach reading and writing…a must-read for all teachers.”—Marcia Henry, Ph.D., author of [Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding and Spelling Instruction](https://products.brookespublishing.com/Unlocking-Literacy-P410.aspx)

[LEARN MORE](https://products.brookespublishing.com/Speech-to-Print-P1167.aspx)